1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for complex-query searching of databases. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for complex multiple item query searching of databases whereby search results are grouped and ranked by suppliers based on which suppliers have inventory for the greatest number of queried items.
2. Description of Background Art
Buyers in need of goods and services often spend considerable time locating desired goods and services and the appropriate vendors therefor. Buyers typically use trade publications, directories, recommendations, and other means to locate vendors. If the type of vendor needed is in a foreign country, the problem compounds. Vendors advertise through various media and by direct sales methods to make known to potential buyers what they sell and how to contact them. Once a buyer identifies a few vendors, each must be contacted to obtain product or service price and availability information. These processes are costly, require experienced personnel and are time consuming for most businesses.
The market for goods and services in various industries is becoming increasingly global, with orders for such goods or services originating from several countries. It is therefore desirable to provide a quick and efficient way to order products or services through a global network of computers, such as those connected to each other via the Internet. The Internet is a collection of interconnected (public and/or private) networks that are linked together by a set of standard protocols, such as TCP/IP to form a global, distributed network. While this term is intended to refer to what is now commonly known as the Internet, it is also intended to encompass variations which may be made in the future, including changes and additions to existing standard protocols.
Online transactions are fairly cheaper than traditional channels and means of doing business. For example, a bank may charge on average one dollar for each transaction (such as every day transactions, from verifying the balance of a checking or savings account, to withdrawal of money from a local bank), versus an average of seven cents that it costs to do the same transaction on an online bank. For this reason, Internet and online trading is expected to grow significantly.
With the growth of electronic commerce via the Internet, several systems and methods have been developed for searching for and buying desired products and services. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,940 to Dworkin is directed to a computerized system for ordering products utilizing a product and service information searchable database. The system provides a menu of general product/service categories and upon user selection of an item, provides a template with various technical criteria for the products available. The user enters his or her preferences in the template and the system searches based on the criteria specified, providing the user with a list of products/services matching the specified criteria. The system shows the suppliers of each product appearing in the search results, as well as price.
Other systems are presented in the form of a catalog. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,542 to King, Jr., et al. is directed to a system for ordering items using an electronic catalog and an electronic requisition facility. The catalog comprises a public catalog for use by all users and a private catalog resident on user computer systems and may contain unique pricing data based on specific pricing agreements between the user and suppliers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,551 to Doyle, et al. is directed to an electronic requisitioning system for channeling customer requisition orders to internal suppliers and outside vendors and processing invoices. Customer multiple item requisition requests are segregated by supplier and sent as purchase orders to appropriate suppliers.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,697 to Fergerson, et al. is directed to a system and method for secure transaction management. It provides a system and method for shopping at a variety of different vendors, one at a time. U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,053 to Pant, et al. is directed to a computer system for performing searches on a collection of information including a mechanism through which results from a search query are ranked according to user specified relevance factors to allow the user to control how the search results are presented. The relevance factors are applied to the results for each query.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,626 to Beauchesne is directed to a method and database system utilized in generating a bill of materials document for a particular user designated customer product. The system responds to part queries by providing part details from approved vendors, including multiple vendors for the same part, and then generates a bill of materials.
Still other efforts include systems that attempt to make query formats for different databases compatible. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,586 to Chang et al. is directed to a computer method and system capable of searching multiple heterogeneous databases with heterogeneous data types by employing an object oriented data model to define a federated query object, a federated collection object and a federated database object. The system essentially permits searches in multiple databases having different formats.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,328 to Coden, et al. is directed to a computer system enabling execution of complex database queries using a single query expression against a database without the use of intermediate results sets. Instead, the system uses a flexible and modular architecture to create a graphical user interface and a database-independent representation of a user query that can be used with heterogeneous databases.
Prior art systems and methods for searching for and buying products and services via the Internet fail to address the need for users to have more practical information in order to make multiple product and/or service purchases and to maximize potential savings from discounts obtained by dealing with certain vendors. The present invention addresses these needs and is an improvement over prior art systems and methods. The system and method of the present invention allows users to obtain, through one search query, results for searches of multiple products and services available from multiple vendors with the ability to rank the search results by vendors based on the number of queried products or services available from each.